“Americans Want Things Fixed, Not Destroyed”

Vanessa Cárdenas: Trump “hellbent on advancing a chaotic agenda that comes at a tremendous cost to all of us.. … immigration plays a central role in Trump’s zero-sum game worldview.”

Access online version of the press release HERE

Washington, DC — America’s Voice has been asking “at what cost?” to all Americans will the Trump administration’s obsessions on immigration continue. The answers this week include:

• A global stock market and economic meltdown triggered by Trump’s tariffs and compounded by his harmful immigration policies.

• Targeting long-established parents, valued employees, and other immigrants who in no way resemble public safety threats as part of a cruel and chaotic mass deportation agenda.

• Trampling on the rule of law, due process and Americans’ basic liberties with immigration as the “tip of the spear” – and Americans are recoiling in new polling.

See below quote for examples and explanations of each of the above points.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“With the active complicity of policymakers on Capitol Hill, the Trump administration is hellbent on advancing a chaotic agenda that comes at a tremendous cost to all of us. Immigration plays a central role in Trump’s zero-sum game worldview. Americans want things fixed, not destroyed. The chaos, disorder and callous cruelty on display aren’t reflective of the enduring values of our country or what we need as a nation. Already, this overreach is triggering a backlash and buyer’s remorse.”

• Trump’s self-inflicted economic meltdown will be compounded by his self-defeating immigration agenda: The Trump administration’s aim to purge and mass deport millions of immigrant workers and community members while dismantling legal immigration is a recipe for economic catastrophe that threatens to compound the self-inflicted harms of the Trump tariff agenda. Examples from related media coverage this week:

o The New York Times’ interactive story, “How Would We Build Homes Without Immigrant Labor and Foreign Materials?” for one example of how the tariffs and immigrant worker purge will inflict costs on Americans.

o  Associated Press article, “Tourism to the U.S. Expected to Plunge as Foreigners Reel at Trump’s Policies and Rhetoric” for reminders that Canadians and other international travelers who annually spend billions in the U.S. as tourists and seasonal visitors won’t be coming this year due to anger over Trump and his policies.

o  NBC News, “Immigration crackdowns disrupt caregivers. Families are paying the price,” reminds us that, “The Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies threaten to cut a key source of labor for nursing facilities and home health agencies that rely on foreign-born workers.”

• Targeting parents, valued employees, and other immigrants who in no way resemble public safety threats as part of a cruel and chaotic mass deportation agenda. The volume of cruel examples of detention and deportations keep growing, including:
• Nick Miroff of The Atlantic writes, “An ‘Administrative Error’ Sends a Maryland Father to a Salvadoran Prison,” breaking the horrific details of the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, who was mistakenly deported
• Jonathan Blitzer in The New Yorker, “The Makeup Artist Donald Trump Deported Under the Alien Enemies Act,” noting “The President has invoked the law to send Venezuelans to prison in El Salvador without due process—and, in many cases, under false pretenses.”
• Syracuse Post-Standard,“Mom, 3 kids detained in ‘cruel,’ ‘horrifying’ ICE dairy farm probe in Northern NY,” noting: “Sackets Harbor Superintendent Jennifer Gaffney said, “These kids are classmates, they are good friends, they are wonderful students, and they are part of the fabric of our school community, and they just need to be returned to their classrooms.”
• ICE officers detained a University of Alabama doctoral student leading to “outcry on campus”

• Trampling on the rule of law, due process and Americans’ basic liberties – and Americans are recoiling in new polling. Immigration is the “tip of the spear” to a dangerous executive branch power grab we are witnessing:

• “Rep. Takano and Immigration Legal Expert Discuss “Alien Enemies Act” History and Implications” – the archaic 1798 law is one of the ways this administration is bypassing due process
• America’s Voice legal advisor and leading immigration attorney David Leopold’s Washington Post op-ed last Sunday, “Trump’s immigrant purge is part of a larger agenda,” noting, “[D]ue process matters as a cornerstone of fairness and justice and is not a mere legal technicality … it is enshrined in the Constitution as a safeguard against arbitrary executive power.”
• New YouGov polling finds overwhelming opposition to Trump’s recent high profile deportations without due process. When gauging support for: “Deporting immigrants without criminal convictions to El Salvador to be imprisoned without letting them challenge the deportation in court,” Americans overwhelmingly oppose the Trump administration’s actions:
• A combined 61% of respondents oppose the Trump actions, while a combined 26% support
• The intensity overwhelmingly is on the side of the opposition, with a plurality of 46% “strongly” opposing while only 15% “strongly support.”
• Democrats oppose by a 89-5% margin (78% strongly oppose); Independents oppose by a 62-22% margin (45% strongly oppose); and Republicans support by a 52-34% margin (32% strongly support and 18% strongly oppose)